SARCOS The Humanoid Robot That Dances And Can Take Some Bullying Around

So we’ve seen plenty of robots in our time, from the recent ones working in Fukushima to the ones helping cure autism in children and others that just look eerily human for the sake of looking eerily human. But none so far have had quite the life-like fluidity of movement as the Sarcos robot developed by the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon. Not only can it dance, but it can take a good shove from behind without falling over thanks to its unique ability to constantly adjust its balance much like the way humans do. Continue after the jump for videos of it dancing and getting bullied.

The Sarcos is a full body humanoid robot that stands and balances on its own two feet with movements that are fluid thanks to the use of hydraulic actuators. Ben Stephens, a Ph.D. research student at Carnegie Mellon, works with Sarcos to develop its balancing abilities. In the first video below you will see him demonstrating Sarcos by having it perform a dance that was programmed from recording human movement via motion capture.

The second video actually shows Sarcos getting pushed with a stick and being able to step forward to adjust its balance without falling over. That’s a good skill to have considering Sarcos is probably not cheap nor lightweight and could cause both monetary and physical damage. What’s interesting in both videos is that Sarcos is not just playing back programmed joint movements, but is actively adjusting balance throughout each movement. Now imagine if they wrap Sarcos with the freakishly human-looking skins of the Geminoids.